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Lot Essay
Professor Dr. Matthias Eberle will include this painting in his forthcoming supplement to the Liebermann catalogue raisonné
In 1910, Liebermann acquired some land by the Wannsee near Berlin, and the following year had a summerhouse and studio erected, built with finances Liebermann proudly claimed he had 'painted' in just two years. Closely modelled on a villa in Hamburg and inspired by Dutch patrician country houses, the house became a summer retreat for the artist and proved a fertile source of artistic inspiration. Indeed, such was Liebermann's affinity with the villa's gardens that he came to call them his Freilichtatelier.
Painted in 1926 Blumentöpfe vor dem Haus belongs to a series of rich, expressive paintings of the artist's Wannsee garden in which subject matter becomes secondary to Liebermann's explorations of light and texture all executed with the thickly applied brushwork and vigorous painterly manner that characterises his mature ouput. The same flower pots can be seen against the wall of the artist's house in two compositions from the following year (E. 1927/12-13). The thickly impasted surface of the present work, particularly in the central flowers and foliage, displays his mastery and overall superb handling of his paint surface, while the strokes of sunlight falling across the front of the composition betray Liebermann's mature synthesis of his Impressionistic manner. At almost eighty years of age, Liebermann's style is fresh and vivacious, the brushstrokes loose and expressive.
In 1910, Liebermann acquired some land by the Wannsee near Berlin, and the following year had a summerhouse and studio erected, built with finances Liebermann proudly claimed he had 'painted' in just two years. Closely modelled on a villa in Hamburg and inspired by Dutch patrician country houses, the house became a summer retreat for the artist and proved a fertile source of artistic inspiration. Indeed, such was Liebermann's affinity with the villa's gardens that he came to call them his Freilichtatelier.
Painted in 1926 Blumentöpfe vor dem Haus belongs to a series of rich, expressive paintings of the artist's Wannsee garden in which subject matter becomes secondary to Liebermann's explorations of light and texture all executed with the thickly applied brushwork and vigorous painterly manner that characterises his mature ouput. The same flower pots can be seen against the wall of the artist's house in two compositions from the following year (E. 1927/12-13). The thickly impasted surface of the present work, particularly in the central flowers and foliage, displays his mastery and overall superb handling of his paint surface, while the strokes of sunlight falling across the front of the composition betray Liebermann's mature synthesis of his Impressionistic manner. At almost eighty years of age, Liebermann's style is fresh and vivacious, the brushstrokes loose and expressive.